Quote:
Originally Posted by Investment Painting Contractors
Thanks Gracie Nobody will ever tell me what it cost to install.
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I have a good friend back in MA who had a solar business and we often talked about the installs he was working on (we are both engineers). There are so many variables that make it hard to come up with a "guestimate" of install cost without really looking at the property.
How your house is oriented, the pitch of the roof, gables on the roof, chimneys, trees on the lot, how much energy you are trying to replace, A/C on the roof, requirements of local power company and state and local codes... and whatever else they run into has a big effect on install cost. As I remember the residential installs he did went from well under $10k to over $25k.
In terms of the actual payback time it depends on power company, local, state, and federal subsidies... which can change from year to year even after a system has been installed. It also depends on the cost of conventional gas/coal electricity... natural gas has been driving down the cost of electricity.
My friend started out doing both residential and commercial installs. He found that if the site was good and the subsidies were good you could show on paper a payback in 6 to 12 years.
In terms of long term savings another unknown is how long panels and inverters will last before they need to be replaced from age or storm or lightning. Back in MA all of his components were guaranteed (parts and labor) for 5 years... that was one the reg's in MA.
He dropped doing residential because the pricing on the jobs was too small to cover the "construction" surprises that always happened. He also had all the commercial work he could handle.
BTW he had extensive background in electrical utilities and construction and was a PE, fully qualified to do this stuff.
About 8 years ago or so he shut down his business so costs/pricing may be different now..
There are also installers (don't know if they are allowed in FL) who do the installation for free and they own and maintain the equipment. You pay them like a power company, per KWH that you use. This, in effect, guarantees the savings you will get from the system. It's not clear if in the end this really ends up being a less expensive way to get solar than just having your own installed and taking on the risk of maintenance yourself.
So in the end you need to have someone check out your house and give a quote and see what they estimate for payback time (if you believe them
).
So in a nutshell if you if you can deal with 6 or 8 years payback time get an estimate.
BTW my friend did a solar installation on his brother's warehouse and it got payback in less than 5 years... but subsidies were much better then than they are now.